Third Wheel No More
by ZHelbigs
Summary: Toph is the greatest earthbender in the world, but that doesn't mean she doesn't feel like a third wheel sometimes. So what happens when she mets someone new? (Toph X OC)


**Hello readers, I want to thank you ahead of time for taking time out of your day to read my first Avatar the Last Airbender story. Now for the disclaimer.**

I** do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or any of its characters. All rights belong to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. This is for non-profit entertainment porpoises only. Please enjoy.**

The world is at peace, after the war all the nations now live in harmony once more. Fire lord Zuko has completely turned the Fire Nation around after only two years. Aang is now a fully realized Avatar, whose duty is to keep balance to the world. The Gaang have not disbanded, but they all have new responsibility. Sokka is an ambassador of the southern water tribe, his wife Suki is training water tribe kids the way of the Kyoshi warriors. Katara is a nurse at Ba Sing Se hospital and is engaged to Aang. Toph built an earthbending academy she too is living in Ba Sing Se with Katara and Aang.

Now with Aang being the Avatar he is gone for weeks and sometimes months at a time, having to leave Katara to her duties at the hospital. After three weeks Aang has finally returned to Ba Sing Se. Walking through the front door early in the morning the two girls asleep in their rooms. He decides to surprise them with a big breakfast.

The smell of pancakes and eggs filled the house, waking up Katara and Toph. As they both exit their rooms and see each other in the hallway, both only in their under wrappings and give the other a confused look.

"Toph are you making breakfast?" Katara asked.

Toph responded by shaking her head. She slides her foot on the ground, using her earthbending to see. Toph gives a smile and tells Katara to go downstairs. Trusting her, Katara starts heading down the steps and she sees Aang. Immediately Katara is wide awake and excited. She runs to Aang, who turns and sees her just in time to see her jump into his arms and tackles him to the ground in a hug.

"When did you get here?" She yells excitedly.

"Just about ten minutes ago." He responds

Katara can't help but to start smothering Aang in kisses. Just as Toph comes down the steps now wearing a green silk robe with gold trim. "Are you two done yet?" Toph teased.

Katara climbs off Aang and helps him up. He look to the blind bender "Morning Toph."

Toph smiles, having missed her friend. "Welcome back Twinkle Toes." She walks over and hugs him. Aang chuckling at the use of her nickname for him.

"Okay you two go get dressed then come back down for the breakfast I made."

Without any arguing the girls head up stairs to put on their day clothes. When they came back down the table was set with a stack of pancakes in the middle, a pan of eggs next to a pitcher of juice. The three friends sit and start eating and catching up on the last three weeks. That's when Katara got an idea.

"Hey Aang how about we have a date night tonight? I can make us a nice dinner." Katara had a flirty smile as she said this.

Aang got the same smile that she did. "Sounds nice." The couple started leaning in to kiss.

"Okay, I'll leave you two alone." Toph said interrupting the kiss.

"No, hang on Toph. Do you want to come to the market with us?" Katara asked.

Toph shrugs "Sure, but I have to be at the school by noon for my first class."

"Oh we'll be done by then." Katara said as a matter of fact.

After the three finish eating they head out the door and down to the market place. As usual it was pretty crowded. Going from shop to shop Toph was starting to get bored. Though she loved both Aang and Katara she couldn't help but always feel like the third wheel. They were at a cabbage cart and Katara was trying to find a good one to buy. As she was about to pay a young man looking about sixteen approaches the cabbage vendor wearing some tattered clothes carrying a shoulder bag.

"Excuse me?" The vendor turns to him. "I'm new to Ba Sing Se and was wondering if you were hiring?"

"No. I'm sorry son I don't have any available positions."

The young man lets out a sigh, but puts on a smile looking back at the vendor. "That's okay. Thanks anyway." He turns and wonders off.

Katara turns to Toph. "Hey Toph aren't you still looking for an assistant at your school?"

"Yeah, but no one ever sticks around long enough so I haven't bothered." She said annoyed remembering all the people quitting after two days. "They always say I'm too mean or strict or something like that."

"Well why don't you give him the job? He seems like he really needs one." Toph shrugs and Katara runs into the crowd looking for him. See that he's getting denied another job. She approaches the young man. "Hey."

He sees her. "Hello. Can I help you?"

"Um yeah, I was just wanting to talk to you about hiring you for a job." Katara said sweetly.

He suddenly gets excited. "Really? Where?"

Just then Toph and Aang finds the two. Katara motions Toph to come closer. As she does Katara says to the young man. "At her earthbending school. She needs an assistant."

"I'm willing to do any job. I just need someone to give me a chance." He says looking a Toph.

She shrugs. "Okay. I'll give you a shot. You start today. Follow me." She heads off into the crowd and the new guy follows as instructed. After walking in silence for about five minutes she asks, "So what's your name?"

"Oh um Joey, ma'am." He responds caught off guard.

"First off don't call me ma'am. Call me Toph, Toph Be Fong." She said correcting him. Joey apologized and Toph continued talking. "Your duties each day will be to prepare the equipment before every class, keep the water jugs filled, and whatever else I ask you to do. Got it?"

"I got it." He answered.

"Good, cause here we are. Inside you'll find the stone blocks in the corner, I want five stacks of five on the middle line." She commanded.

Joey was in awe of the huge building before him. Toph snaps her fingers in front of his face and tells him to get to work. Inside the building was basically a tournament arena. The day went by quickly and with the only mishap being that he accidentally dropped one of the heavy bricks shattering it. But Toph, being an earthbender easily fixed it. Joey spent the day watching Toph teach and occasionally fetching something she needed and returning to his seat.

As the day ended the last class packed their things and said goodbye to their sifu at about 9:30. Joey in turn started to sweep the rubble away and clean the up training room. As he was sweeping, Toph came out of her office (were she has her personal bath). Her hair is wet and she is drying it with a towel. "So, you didn't do to bad for your first day." The first time she spoke to him since class started that wasn't an order.

"Well I did my best, but I guess it's up to you wether it was good enough" He responded trying to make a joke out of it.

Not even a chuckle from Toph, and he slumps his shoulders thinking he said something wrong. Toph finally broke the silence, " You're a hard worker, you take direction well, and you did everything I asked without a complaint." She paused and tossed the towel to him. "You got the job."

Joey gets a big grin on his face as he thanks her for the opportunity. As they both finish up Toph shuts and locks the door of the building. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Um what time?" Joey asked.

"Be here by noon." She answered as she started walking back home leaving Joey to his own accord.

Joey watched her as she walked away, and once she turned the corner he lets out a sigh then looks to his left and right. When he saw that no one was around he turns back to the building and lightly stomps his foot down and creates a small hole in the wall. He gets down on his stomach and crawls back into the locked building. The hole is then refilled like nothing happened.

As Toph approaches her home she reached into her pocket and pulls out the house keys. She unlocks the front door and enters, but what Toph hadn't thought of was that tonight was Aang and Katara's date night. Once she stepped foot in the door what she saw with her earthbending was Aang sitting on the couch with Katara straddling his lap as they made out passionately.

"whoa baby!" Toph exclaimed in surprise.

Katara and Aang hadn't noticed her, being to preoccupied with each others tongues in their mouth. But both jumped from being startled by the sudden voice and Katara quickly swung her other leg off Aang and sat on the couch next to him. Their cheeks were bright red and Aang was stuttering trying to find the words to say.

Katara jumped in, "What Aang is trying to say is that we weren't expecting you home tonight." Her cheeks still red as she straightened her fancy dress out.

Toph turned away, even though I wouldn't do any good given that she sees with earthbending, but did so out of respect. The silence was deafening so Toph decided to break it. "So I'm gonna leave you two alone for the night like I had planed to do, but you know its been a long day and I forgot so," she paused as she looked for what to say next and went with, "bye." With that she left and shut the door behind her.

After that embarrassing moment Toph starts walking back to her school, since she has a small cot there in case she had a really busy day and is to tired to walk home. On the long walk back she thinks about all the times she has accidentally ruined "the moment" for those two. Though she acted like it didn't bother her, she was kind of jealous of their relationship. She was happy for them, but couldn't help but think that everyone in the "Gaang" had found someone. Katara and Aang, Sokka and Suki, and Zuko and Mai, she was the only single one left.

With all that in her mind she unlocks her building and enters. Once inside she notices a presents that doesn't belong. Suddenly she stomps hard on the ground and Joey is sent flying into the air and lands right in front of Toph. In a daze he look up and she's starring him down. "What the Hell are you doing in here?!" She yells.

Joey slowly stands and tries not to make any sudden moves. "Toph I swear this is not what you think."

Before he could say anymore she interrupts. "I hope for your sake you can explain your way out."

"Okay just hear me out. You remember me saying I'm new to Ba Sing Se?" She nods at him. "Alright well when I said I was knew, I meant brand new. Like this is my first day here, and because it's my first day in the city I had no where to stay."

"So you thought it would be okay if you just broke into my school and stayed the night?" She said very angrily.

He just looks at the floor. "No. Give me a minute to grab my things and I'll be out of here." He walks back where he got catapulted from and turns back to Toph. "I'm fired aren't I?"

Toph thinks about it and then speaks up. "How'd you get in? The door was locked and you didn't pick it?" Thats something she would have noticed with her metal bending.

"I bent a hole in the wall and refilled it." he answered.

Toph gets a shocked look on her face. "So you're an earthbender?" Joey nods. "why didn't you say anything?"

Joey shrugs. "No one asked."

Toph mentally smacked her forehead since the thought of him being a bender never crossed her mind. She thought a bit more on what to do as Joey rolled up his blanket and tucked it in his shoulder bag. Just as he was about to pass her she stopped him. "Wait. Why don't u stay here for the night." Joey stops and turns to her. "I'll bring you a pillow." and with that she walks to her office.

She grabs one of her pillows and heads back to Joey, who has laid out his blanket once more. She tosses him the pillow and says goodnight. But then Joey asks, "So Toph I was wondering, why'd you come back?"

At first she was just gonna shrug it off since it really wasn't any of his business. But then felt like there was no harm in it. "Well you know those two I was with in the market today?" He nods remembering the girl that got him this job, but couldn't quite remember the guys face. Toph continued, "Well those two are my friends and are getting married next year. The thing is her fiancé has to travel for work and is gone for months at a time. So when he gets back they usually want some alone time if u catch my drift." He chuckles and nods again. "Well he just got back today and I forgot about date night. Trust me I know I'm blind but there are still things that I can't un-see."

He laughed a bit more and said, "So you caught them doing the deed huh?"

"No but had I been 5 minutes later who knows." Toph laughed a little bit. Joey was surprised to hear her laugh but thought it was a nice change. "So I'll see you in the morning." She turned and walked back to her office and laid on her cot.

Her mind started to drift and she thought to herself that she's gonna like having Joey around. It was someone that she got along with, not that she didn't get along with Katara it's just that it has been awhile since she had a new friend. She silently hoped that he lasts longer than two days. And with that thought she drifted off to sleep.

**Well there you go. I hope you all enjoyed it and let me know if I should keep this one going. If you liked it please pass it around. And if you didn't like it, what could I do to Improve? Comments, reviews, and constructive criticisms are all welcome. Aslo in you find any spelling/grammer mistakes let me know so I can fix them. Thank you again.**


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